You Look Awesome at My Expense

I hate it when a non-native English speaker who speaks flawless English begins her presentation with a disclaimer like “pardon my Swenglish/Danglish/Finglish" or "English is not my first language, so forgive me if I make mistakes.” I especially hate it when the person in question is a tall, blonde and model-esque Scandinavian beauty.

Most likely, the roomful of ignorant Americans would go “awww, how cute,” lower their expectations, and be blown away by how un-Swenglish/Danglish/Finglish her language is.

Not only does she unfairly gain herself an extra thumb up by lowering people’s expectation, but she’s also downgrading another non-native English speaker in the room whose English is worse but did not give the same warning (how tacky would it be for me to follow suit and tell the audiences to “pardon my Indolish?”)

When it comes my turn to present, they probably think, who’s this ugly Asian shmuck with the thick accent. She should be the one making the disclaimer.